Disclaimer: Yes I own Bleach! And it's sitting on my mom's laundry machine :P
A/N:Haha thank you so much everyone! 8 reviews is still a lot compared to how crappy I thought it was XD. So here's the long awaited chapter for you IchiRuki fans out there and for RukiKaien people you already had your fun with the first two chapters ;). Also this chapter has the flashback how Ichigo and Rukia met so it's gonna be kind of boring there sorry
Shell: I'm not so sure if it's true or not but my friend told me so and I also read it in Hana-Kimi LOL I'd like to think so in my story XD
Chapter 4: Temporary Stalls
It has been an entire month since Rukia left Soul Society and Kaien was beginning to worry. Not by the amount she's been gone but by the fact that her rietsu has yet to be detected. He tried many times to get permission by Yamamoto himself to go look for her but each time his suggestion gets shot down. Not only did Rukia just wake up from a fifty year coma now he has to wait an additional plus months to talk to her again. He blew his bangs away in frustration, life was treating him horribly.
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"No," an orange strawberry gritted out in annoyance.
"But it's only for today!" She pleaded with a small pout. Ichigo continued to stare at his textbook because he knew the moment he looked at her the battle was lost.
"And again I say no, I have to my homework and so do you midget," he pointed out wearily. Rukia smirked, now she had him.
"I could always copy off of Keigo-kun, unlike you he's nice," The midget Shinigami had to keep in her snicker at the sight of his shoulders tensing. She didn't understand why it bothered him when she talked about other guys, making a mental note that Kaien acted the same way, but not like it mattered, victory was now hers. Ichigo was unable to keep his cool as he immediately spun around and yelled,
"And since when are you two on first name basis anyway?!" But the thought flew out of his mind when his eyes landed on her still pouting face. He cursed himself mentally for falling into her stupid trick. Ever since she had arrived into his life about a month ago she had managed to slowly break down the wall that he so carefully built over the years and he wasn't sure if he liked it or hated it, but at the moment he hated it with every fiber in his being that she had managed to convince him to watch another damn Chappy episode with her.
"Ah alright let's go downstairs," he managed to mutter out in defeat. Ichigo glanced behind him to see if she followed, only to see the sight of her jump up from excitement. The corner of his lips curved upward slightly. Maybe been in hell for thirty minutes wasn't so bad as long as he was with her. Rukia grabbed his wrist and bounded down the stairs in five seconds flat, completely oblivious to his flushed cheeks. Once seated on the couch he inconspicuously shifted closer to the raven haired girl grumbling out a half assed excuse that his side was too lumpy.
Never had he been so happy that the damn cartoon started because she didn't notice or care of their seating arrangements. With an inward groan he forced his eyes to focus on the show rather than the woman, who was one hundred and fifty by the way, watching it. After the third bunny that popped out with a ridiculously large smile he dragged his head on the armrest and prayed that the angel of death would swipe him away from the torture. Ironic enough, it was Rukia, the Death Goddess, delivering it.
"Oi Ichigo go get me some of that exploding corn!" she insisted, poking him on the side with her eyes still glued to the screen.
"You mean popcorn?" He corrected deadpanned. Yet a small part of him couldn't help to admit that her cluelessness was hopelessly adorable. 'Where the hell did that come from?' His thoughts were luckily brought to a halt when another rabbit jumped into his line of vision.
"Oh forget this," he carped standing up abruptly to save the very brain cells he had left. His long strides brought him to the kitchen in time, and absentmindedly began to look for the popcorn package in one of the cabinets. Once opening it he shoved it into the microwave and punched the button that read "popcorn." Leaning against the counter for the three minute wait his mind wandered to the first night he met the vertically challenged Shinigami and gained the substitute Soul Reaper title for himself.
Flashback
A blink, followed by another, then he rubbed his eyes. Of course he knew that seeing ghost wasn't that big of a deal anymore after having years of encounters with them, but Ichigo Kurosaki had never seen one in "samurai gear" that he had dubbed offhandedly, going through his wall. If he wasn't so scared shitless he might even say the petite female was attracting, then again he wasn't a womanizer. So instead he did the only thing his body would tell him when it went to self defense mode, he attacked the intruder.
The unsuspecting girl who was only doing her job went flying across the room and landed sprawled on the residences' wooden floor. A huge vein popped out of her forehead, and whatever poor soul was stupid enough to hit RukaiKuchiki was going to suffer horribly for their actions. She quickly whipped her head behind her and almost let her mouth gape when she saw a young man who looked exactly like Kaien except for the carrot colored hair.
"Is this what you call undercover Kaien-dono? Besides I was suppose to do this on my own why did you follow me?" She fumed after already getting back on her feet. This mission was suppose to prove that she is worthy of the name Kuchiki, she didn't need any help, but what hurt her the most was that "Kaien-dono" didn't trust her if he standing right in front of her. The strawberry scrunched up his nose in half confusion and annoyance. The girl had already made it into his top weird people's list that he should stay away from, just barley second from Keigo
"Ok first of all I have no idea who the hell this 'Kaien-dono' guy is," he listed making a poor imitation of Rukia's voice when he said 'Kaien-dono.'
"And second of all who would want to follow a little irritating brat like you?" Rukia clenched her jaw, and threw a deathly glare his way.
"Who are you calling a brat?" she spat vehemently. Ichigo just rolled his eyes at her question. Who else was in the room with them anyway?
"Of course not I was talking to the guy behind ya," he replied sarcastically and almost doubled in laughter when she turned. However, he stopped when he saw the bespectacled ghost that had appeared in his kitchen not long ago. Talk about good timing. 'Does everyone feel the need to go through my room today?' he thought exasperated. His eyes widened when he saw her take out her zanpakuto as if ready to slice the petrified man in half.
"O-oiwait! Crazy lady don't--," but he was too late she had already hit his forehead with the…hilt of her sword? He watched the scene in utter bewilderment. He pinched himself as he heard her talk about nonsense of 'Soul Society', making sure that it was not a dream. Perhaps Keigo or Mizuiro put something in his drink during lunch and was barley kicking in? He pulled his hand away from his cheek when it began hurting; verifying that indeed what was happening is real. The midget turned back to him after sheathing her zanpakuto and walked toward him.
Anybody with half a brain would immediately step away from a person who carried a sword with them with at all time, but Ichigo could only stare as her form came closer. He noticed that despite the glare she didn't have cruel eyes, he'd never seen a color such as hers in fact he thought they were quite beautiful, and it'll be a cold day in hell before he admitted that to anyone including himself. He felt his cheeks flush slightly when her hand made contact to his face, turning his head from side to side in a form of inspection. Not sure if it was out of annoyance or to stop the color from rising in his cheeks he batted her hand away and commented rudely,
"Why don't you go back to the pound you came from bitch," the next sound that was heard in the room was a yelp from Ichigo as he was hit hard on the stomach by a sketch pad. While reeling back in pain he noticed that the pages were colorfully filled with…crabs? Or were they donkeys? He wasn't sure if he should laugh or cry at her horrible scribbles.
"Did you draw that?" He asked slowly while pointing at the thing that what he hoped was a bear. The light in her eyes shone as he finally took recognition of her masterpiece. She puffed up her chest with pride and answered, "Yes I did! Wonderful isn't it?" Pity be taken on the orange strawberry since he did not learn from his first lesson when he insulted her and he repeated the same mistake.
"Wonderful?" He scoffed, "sorry to brake it to you but your drawings are shitty lookin'--,"
He groaned as this time the hit was directed to his head. Today was not his day. A sickening howl filled their ears distracting them from the childish argument and turned to the direction of the sound. "What the hell was that?!"
"A hollow," she informed gravely.
"A what now?"
"A hollow, an evil spirit who feeds on souls" she informed as she opened the door that led to the hallway. He caught up to her quickly because of his longer strides and grabbed her shoulder.
"Wait, I'm coming with you," her eyebrows practically hit her hairline with his firm statement, hell even he wondered what possessed him to do such a stupid thing.
"What part 'feeds on souls' didn't you get?" the shinigami droned out slowly as if talking to a three year old. Ichigo growled at her mock and almost swore right there that if the hollow didn't kill her then he will.
"I'm not deaf you idiot I heard you loud and clear. Thing is I got something about midgets dying at an early age," he replied cooly, unconsciously grabbing her wrist and dragging her to the hallway with him. She was about to kick his shin when she heard another scream that did not belong to a hollow, but rather a young girl. She felt his grip around her wrist tighten as his entire body tensed.
"Yuzu," he whispered in sheer panic. Before she knew it the death goddess was hauled downstairs only to see the image of a blond girl on the floor bleeding and an older man whom she assumed was his father lying face down on the corner of the living room soaking in his own pool of blood. Rukia noticed his other hand fist into a ball and snapped his head toward the yell of another girl.
"Karin!"
"Ichi-niirun!" And run he did, but instead toward the horrendous monster who held his sister hostage. It was then that Rukiabroke away from his strong grip after biting his hand, which caused a disgusted look to appear on his face for a split second before turning his attention back to his sister. This was the first hollow she was dealing with alone without Kaien by her side so she had to make the best of it. Ichigo watched in fascination as her small figure practically danced in the moonlight, swinging her zanpakuto to the hollows right arm, eliciting a screech from it and dropping his sister. He caught her with ease, laying her down safely by a telephone pole, and sighed in relief to see that she was alright.
Something inside of him stirred when he saw her get tossed aside from a powerful punch the monster threw at her. For some odd reason he felt an urge to protect the little shinigami with all his might, even if it left him with a couple of broken bones. He put it off as temporary insanity as he grabbed a nearby pipe and yelled,
"Oi Fish face over here!" Ichigo clenched the pipe tighter, somewhat proud of himself that he managed to grab the hollow's attention away from the black robed girl. Once Rukia recovered from the previous hit she saw the hollow walking toward the orange haired teen.
"You fool!" She screamed in alarm and dashed in a speed that could have made her nii-sama jealous. Ichigo said nothing, but only readied himself from the attack the masked creature was about to inflict upon him; except it never came because Rukia had lodged herself between him and the hollow. Amber eyes widened at the amount of blood that was dripping from the woman's robes, he didn't want that, he just wanted to protect her, but by the looks of it he failed just like he did his family.
"I just…," but no answer came because it faded it out over the screech of the hollow. Rukia detangled herself from the jaws of the creature after slicing off one of its teeth and turned to the gawking boy.
"Do you want to save your family?" She rasped from the pain of the injury.
"Of course! I'm no t a pansy who abandons his family and the midget who tried to save them!" He shouted, feeling eager that she will have a solution for him to help out. Her panting quickened and took her sword in hand, ignoring the insult of her height she responded,
"Then become a Soul Reaper," The teen could care less if he became a five headed monster, he would do anything to save his family and strangely enough, her. Numbingly wrapping his fingers around the blade he thanked the injured girl.
"I owe ya one Midget," confusion flashed on his face when she shook her head in disagreement along with a frightening scowl that could surpass his own.
"It's not Midget you prick it'sKuchikiRukia," A small chuckle escaped his lips and grabbed the blade tighter.
"Ah, and I'm Kurosaki Ichigo…
Ichigo…
It's burning…
You fool the popping corn is burning!
Wait…popcorn? SHIT!
End of flashback
The strawberry coughed haphazardly as the disgusting smell invaded his nostrils. His hand swatted the smoke away as if it to make it forever disappear from his sight. After much fumbling he managed to pop the microwave open and a new wave of grey smoke hit him directly to the face. Taking his shirt he thrust it over his nose and cracked one eye open. With a flail swoop he threw it over to the sitting Shinigami who asked him to make the accursed food and hit her on the back of her head.
"Itai! What the hell was that for?!" She bellowed throwing the burning hot bag back to him. She scowled when he managed to catch it but cackled when he let out a manly screech from the heat and dropped it.
"Whatta ya mean 'what for' why didn't you take it out before the smoke started to come out?!"
"Because you told me never to touch anything in the kitchen!" She retaliated smugly. That shut him up. He did remember telling her that but for the safety of the house. After all, she somehow managed to set rice on fire. Leave it to the Rukia to break all the laws of physics.
"Well when it's a life and death situation you're allowed to," he permitted exasperated, his mind wondering if her lack of common sense is what killed her in her past life. Once Rukia safely checked that The Adventures of Chappy and Friends was on commercials she stalked over to Ichigo and dragged him back to the couch, throwing the burned popcorn back into the wastebasket along the way. He cursed at the extremely short commercial break as the high pitch voice of the rabbit began to speak. Rukia eyed him and could tell he was about to bail so she did the first thing that crossed her mind; she laid her head on his lap.
Ichigo was glad that the inferno television show kept her attention away from his burning face. He knew he could easily push her off of him but a part of him told him that he liked the feeling and that it was alright for her to stay there. But what scared him was his hammering heart and by the looks of it wasn't going to slow down anytime soon. The teen looked down at the female death god on his lap and thought bitterly, 'You have no idea what you're doing to me do you Rukia?'
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"Oh to hell with this," groused Kaien as he once again entered the 1st Division main building. Without a care of the ruckus he was making he slammed the door open loudly that led to the infamous general Yamamoto. The old coot sighed as he saw who it was, none other than the Shiba who would not shut up about looking for his subordinate. Looking at his stack of paper work he decided that today he was in no mood to argue with the nobleman. Before Kaien could open his mouth Yamamoto instructed,
"You may go look for Kuchiki Rukia if that will keep you from bothering me,"
"But sir-!" Kaien objected but pursed his lips when the words finally sunk in. He blinked in utter bafflement. Without wanting to risk his superior to change his mind the Vice-captain practically flew out the room. Yamamoto gave a small smile of amusement when he heard the eldest Shiba's voice yell from a distance,
"Thank you Sir you won't regret it!" How little that they all knew that by sending Kaien more trouble was to ensue on the living world.
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TBC…..
A/N: OMG I'm so sorry I know I said I would make this chapter better than the last but…damn….LOl Well I hope you guys enjoyed the little IchiRuki fluff. I'm not that good at writing about them so it's a bit dry ah well at least Ichigo already developed feelings for our favorite midget :3 Hehehe so will Kaien and Ichigo meet in the next chapter? Kukuku review please - they always make me happy. And a happy me equals a faster update most of the time :D
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